Friedbeef’s Tech

“Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day” - World Bank

While statistics like that are disturbing, but if we all work together, we can make a difference. Here are a 3 ways to help you move in that direction.

Help the Needy: GoodSearch.com

Goodsearch is a search engine which shares fifty percent of the revenue generated from their advertisers with the charity, school or nonprofit organization of your choosing. The three things I like about this engine are:

1. Ability to choose the organisation you want to help and add charities not already listed
2. Transparency in accounts where all revenue generated and donated to any organisation is shared openly
3. Uses a Yahoo! powered search so quality is assured.

Currently the charities are based only in the US, with plans for international expansion in the future. Don’t however, let that stop you from helping global organisations like the WWF.

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For a country which has been harping on IT development for years, Malaysia has a shockingly low broadband penetration of 2.5%!

One site, RedesignMalaysia.com, aims improve the quality and coverage of broadband in Malaysia, and wants to achieve this through the compilation of relevant news articles, highlighting areas that lack coverage, through giving consumers an understanding of broadband options in their area.

I recently caught up with its founder Josh Lim to discuss how this project was doing, launch strategies for the site, and broadband in Malaysia in general.

The corporate identity also summarizes our view quite nicely – Malaysia needs some tweaking. My web design background has probably something to do with the name, and its really what I intend to do – redesign Malaysia, as things need to be done in a new way.

In the foreseeable future, do you plan to branch out to other projects besides broadband reform via Redesign Malaysia?

Quite likely. I’ll personally like to see lower software prices, later closing hours for nightspots and entertainment outlets, better public transport and pothole free roads. But these are my interests, and its also very much up to what site visitors and the general Malaysian public feel needs to be “redesigned”, and what is feasible.

What are your short term & long term plans for this site, and what do you ultimately hope to accomplish with it?

Short term, I hope to build awareness on the lack of broadband facilities here, as well as stress its importance. Long term wise, I think we stand a good chance of being able to rally the community together to lobby for causes which are of public interest, broadband being one of the most pressing issues which I feel needs to be addressed here.

The lack of broadband here is going to be a problem over the next few years if not addressed – in the shift to a knowledge based economy, the nation’s infrastructure will have to cope with teleworking, more data being sent around, and international relations. We really are going to literally lag behind other countries and face communication problems over the next few years if there isn’t a drastic improvement in our broadband services.

Ultimately I’ll like it to make a difference in Malaysia, and be accessible enough for people to talk about the site its purposes over a teh tarik at the mamak with their friends, as well as attract dedicated people to the cause.

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Trying to run a website without metrics is like driving at night with your lights off. Knowing what your readers like, and where your traffic is coming from is crucial to building an audience for your site.

Here are 10 factors which should guide your decision as to which counter to pick.

1. How fast does it load?
Speed is essential. You don’t want your counter holding up page loading time.

2. What metrics does it track?
Look for more than a simple counter. Take time to see what each service tracks. Managed properly, more information is always better. At this point, nothing beats Google Analytics for breadth of information.

3. What stats can you make public?
Want to show off your stats? Use a counter where you can adjust your privacy level to a level you are comfortable with.

4. Is the service reliable?
The last thing you need is your metrics tool going down and messing up your tracking. Do some research online and get something you know you can rely on.

5. How often does your stats update?
Not every counter tracks in real time. Google Analytics for example only updates every 24 hours.

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